Sri Lanka stocks close down 1.38-pct; LMF crossing pushes turnover

Sri Lanka’s Colombo Stock Exchange closed lower on Thursday, CSE data showed, with the benchmark All Share Price Index falling 1.38 percent.

The ASPI was down 283.21 points at 20,234.34, while the more liquid S&P SL20 was down 0.82 percent, or 47.82 points, at 5,768.58.

Positive

contributors to the ASPI were HNB Life (up 3.04 percent at 144.25 rupees), Renuka Holdings (up 2.16 percent at 37.90 rupees), Odel (up 2.06 percent at 9.90 rupees), and Hayleys (up 0.22 percent at 223.00 rupees).

Carson Cumberbatch (down 3.39 percent at 676.25 rupees), Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka (down 2.85 percent at 51.10 rupees), Hemas Holdings (down 2.56 percent at 30.50 rupees), Dialog Axiata (down 1.34 percent at 44.10 rupees), and Hatton National Bank (down 0.99 percent at 375.50 rupees) were top negative contributors.

Market turnover was 2.74 billion rupees.

High turnover was largely driven by crossing transactions, with Lanka Milk Foods recording crossings of about 1 billion rupees and Sunshine Holdings seeing a crossing of around 300 million rupees